Computer News Middle East April 2017

ISSUE 303 | APRIL 2017 WWW.TAHAWULTECH.COM

Network World Middle East Awards 2017 McDonald’s UAE Infor president Stephan Scholl Sage Summit Tour Johannesburg

Lego CEO Bali Padda on digitising the world’s number one brand PUBLICATION LICENSED BY DUBAI PRODUCTION CITY, DCCA

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EDITORIAL Our events

Transformation time At long last, I’m delighted to say that Tahawultech.com is live.

Tahawul Tech – transformation tech, in English – is the name for CPI Media Group’s new technology news platform that sees the amalgamation of our website, cnmeonline.com, with our sister magazines’ sites, resellerme.com and securityadvisorme.com.

The thinking behind the name is simple: increasingly diverse technology is driving transformation in our region at an unprecedented rate, and we feel We want to compelled to cover these issues in give the top the most informative and interesting business leaders way we can. and technology So, “What’s new in Tahawul decision makers Tech?” I hear you ask. in the region the Video content will be key. We chance to share their stories of want to give the top business leaders transformational and technology decision makers in success through the region the chance to share their our platform. stories of transformational success through our platform.

Our new Your Voice discussions, meanwhile, will give these same figures the chance to engage in sophisticated debate with your peers on topics that matter most to you.

There’s been a constant buzz within CPI Media Group’s technology team around Tahawul Tech, and we can’t wait to work with you over the coming months and years in fulfilling its huge potential.

I’m delighted that CNME’s first cover star of the Tahawul Tech era is none other than Lego chief executive Bali Padda.

Lego was recently named the world’s most powerful brand by Brand Finance, and Bali is determined to transform the company that is defined by physical blocks into a digital powerhouse to keep its cult following hooked. Turn to page 18 for more.

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LOCAL PRESENCE GLOBAL EXPERTISE

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Contents

Our Strategic Partners Strategic ICT Partner

Strategic Technology Partner

Strategic Innovation Partner

ISSUE 303 | APRIL 2017

30 18

INTERVIEW: LEGO CEO BALI PADDA

12

The race to innovate

16

Sage Summit Tour 2017

22

CASE STUDY: MCDONALD'S UAE

44 One-track mind

Tahawul Tech, CPI Media Group's all new online platform, gathered regional IT heads to discuss the importance of innovation in the inagural edition of Your Voice.

Delegates from across the globe congregated in Johannesburg to highlight Sage's charity initiative and announce regional product launches.

Many companies claim to have 'gone digital,' but what can organisations do to maximise the potential that digitisation has to offer?

48 Public promise

Which countries can governments across the GCC learn from in terms of delivering beneficial IT projects to their citizens?

26 Clean bill

52 'The iPhone of business systems'

40 Lock and key

60 Your path to CDO success

56

NETWORK WORLD MIDDLE EAST AWARDS 2017

INTERVIEW: SAGE CEO STEPHEN KELLY

James Dartnell sat down with Infor's Stephan Scholl to discuss the firm’s ambitious plans to quintuple its regional market share in the next five years.

LifePharma's Shailesh Mani on transforming the company's manufacturing factory into a predominantly paperless facility.

What can end users do to ensure that they are not at the mercy of those whose technology they use daily?

Gartner’s Alan Duncan on the growing importance of the chief data officer in digital business.

Published by FOUNDER, CPIMEDIA GROUP Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) EDITORIAL Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129

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DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developer Jefferson de Joya Abbas Madh Photographers Charls Thomas Maksym Poriechkin webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100 Publication licensed by Dubai Production City, DCCA PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409

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Printed by Printwell Printing Press © Copyright 2017 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

DIGITAL GOODS UAE REPORT MUSIC

MOST POPULAR DIGITAL GOODS PURCHASES IN THE UAE:

MOST POPULAR MUSIC PLATFORMS: MOVIES/ TV

85%

VIDEO GAMES

50%

MUSIC

44%

eBOOKS

37%

THE UAE IS A NATION OF SMARTPHONE CONSUMERS: DIGITAL GOODS CONSUMPTION ON SMARTPHONE

93%

32%

29%

GOOGLE PLAY MUSIC

APPLE iTUNES

8%

9%

APPLE MUSIC

SAAVN

4%

4%

ANGHAMI

DEEZER

81%

MUSIC

MOBILE GAMING

77%

74%

NICHE MUSIC PLATFORMS PROVIDE A STRONG OPPORTUNITY, WITH HINDI MUSIC STREAMING PLATFORM SAAVN SHOWING AS THE THIRD MOSTPOPULAR PLATFORM AFTER GOOGLE PLAY MUSIC AND APPLE ITUNES

47%

eBOOKS

MOVIES/ TV

DOWNLOAD

vs.

27%

STREAMING

Source: PayPal

MOVIES & TV

GAMING

MOVIES/TV SHOWS ARE THE NEW IMPULSE PURCHASE IN THE UAE

UAE VIDEO GAME CONSUMPTION:

40

%

BEDROOM

86% LIVING ROOM

80% COMMUTING

38% OF RESPONDENTS INDICATED THAT THEY PURCHASE / DOWNLOAD BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE PHYSICAL COPY

OFFICE

35% BATHROOM

30%

AIRPLANE

AVERAGE TIME BETWEEN INTEREST IN A MOVIE/TV SHOW AND PURCHASING

INSTANTLY

28%

SAME DAY

26%

2-6 DAYS LATER

18%

OVER A WEEK LATER

15%

NEXT DAY

10%

OVER A MONTH LATER

3%

29% BARS/RESTAURANTS

19% 26% OF UAE DIGITAL CONSUMERS WATCH VIDEO GAME LIVE STREAMS LOCATION

86%

PLAY GAMES

THE BEDROOM IS THE NEW HUB FOR CONSUMING DIGITAL CONTENT

84%

READ eBOOKS

79%

72%

LISTEN WATCH TV/ TO MUSIC MOVIES

SHORT TAKES

Month in view

SAMSUNG TO REVAMP HORDES OF RECALLED NOTE7’S Samsung has announced that it will refurbish and sell some of its Note 7 smartphones, in a drive to manage its stockpile of the recalled devices in an “environmentally friendly” manner.

Over 4 million devices were recalled in September after thousands of them around the world burst into flames. Airlines and public transportation systems globally went on to ban their usage.

The casing of the original battery was too small, causing it to shortcircuit and ignite. It was replaced with a battery that had a different manufacturing defect but led to the same result.

The recalled phones could pose an environmental hazard if handled as waste.

A Samsung statement said that the devices would be “recycled and processed in an environmentally friendly manner” with any salvageable components detached for reuse and metals extracted by specialist recycling companies.

“Regarding the Galaxy Note 7 devices as refurbished phones or rental phones, applicability is dependent upon consultations with regulatory authorities and carriers as well as due consideration of local demand,” a Samsung statement said. “The markets and release dates will be determined accordingly.”

8

APRIL 2017

AMAZON AGREES DEAL TO ACQUIRE SOUQ.COM Amazon has reached an agreement to acquire Souq.com after a series of protracted negotiations.

Subject to conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in 2017, but neither company is yet to disclose the value of the deal.

Shortly before the deal was agreed, Emaar Malls had reportedly lodged an $800 million bid for the Middle East’s highest valued Internet company, but an agreement has now been reached with the US e-commerce giant.

The firm currently has localised operations in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt.

Amazon recently reopened talks to acquire Souq.com in a deal valued at as much as $650 million after walking away earlier this year.

“We are guided by many of the same principles as Amazon, and this acquisition is a critical next step in growing our e-commerce presence on behalf of customers across the region,” said Souq.com CEO and co-founder, Ronaldo Mouchawar. “By becoming part of the Amazon family, we’ll be able to vastly expand our delivery capabilities and customer selection much faster, as well as continue Amazon’s great track record of empowering sellers.”

Souq.com was valued at $1 billion in its last funding round, people with knowledge of the matter said in April 2015.

The retailer raised $275 million, making it the most valuable internet company in the Middle East, according to Standard Chartered.

“Amazon and Souq.com share the same DNA – we’re both driven by customers, invention, and long-term thinking,” said Russ Grandinetti, senior vice president, international consumer, Amazon. “Together, we’ll work hard to provide the best possible service for millions of customers in the Middle East.”

WORLDWIDE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND ANALYTICS MARKET TO REACH

$18.3 BILLION IN 2017.

Source: Gartner www.tahawultech.com

ETISALAT ACHIEVES ISO 20000 CERTIFICATION Etisalat has announced that its managed services business has been successfully accredited with the ISO 20000 certification.

According to the telco company, the certification is an acknowledgement of its outstanding commitment to IT service quality, standards and global best practices in service management.

ISO 20000 provides a better alignment of IT services and the business. This is also mainly due to an integrated process approach, reduction of incidents and continuous improved incident management and service delivery costs, leading to financial savings, greater understanding of roles and business objectives and protecting the company, assets, shareholders and customers.

Salvador Anglada, chief business officer, Etisalat, said, “Etisalat is dedicated to delivering best-in-class services to our key stakeholders and customers. The ISO 20000 certification is a great way to demonstrate our core values to both new and existing customers.”

Chief technology officer Haitham Abdulrazzak said, “Etisalat has continuously invested in improving the quality of our systems and service portfolio by attaining industry accreditations in quality, business continuity, information security and environment. This has helped maintain our leadership position, demonstrate excellence and prove best practices in IT service management.”

UAE TO LAUNCH FIRST REGIONAL MICROFACTORY

Mubadala Development Company, the Dubai Future Foundation and GE Additive are combining their expertise to create the first microfactory in the region.

The microfactory is said to support UAE developments in 3D printing, and will bridge the gap to production through small batch manufacturing. In addition, it claims to enable growth in new sectors while supporting ecosystem development and customer co-creation.

The goal is to build both an Abu Dhabi-based microfactory focused on serving industrial companies, as well as a Dubai-based microfactory focused on serving consumer goods and services companies. www.tahawultech.com

“The leadership of the UAE is a firm believer in the exceptional opportunities presented by a proactive and futurefocused strategy, enabling individuals, companies, sectors and the nation to progress through the use of innovative and collaborative tools and platforms,” said H.E. Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs in the Federal Government of the UAE and Vice Chairman and Managing Director of the Dubai Future Foundation.

“Manufacturing across many sectors has contributed to the diversification of our economy, and a number of Mubadala’s portfolio companies have made great strides in using collaboration and innovation to deepen manufacturing expertise,” said Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Mubadala’s Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. “This partnership with the Dubai Future Foundation and GE on these innovative micro-factories has the potential to further this expertise and enhance the country’s competitive edge.”

SAP HAS ANNOUNCED A FIVE-YEAR,

$200 MILLION

INVESTMENT IN THE UAE, UNDERPINNING OBJECTIVES OUTLINED BY THE UAE VISION 2021 PLAN.

DUBAI TO RECEIVE POLICE ROBOTS BY MAY

Dubai Police has said that robot police officers that were first touted at GITEX Technology Week 2016 will be on the emirate’s streets by May. Dubai Media Office’s Twitter page confirmed the news.

The idea was first put forward in 2015 when Dubai Police said the robots would be able to interact with people through a screen and microphone connected to Dubai Police call centres.

The multilingual robot will allow members of the public to report crimes to the police using the touchscreen on its chest. People will also be able to pay fines, and submit documents to the policing authority.

Khalid Alrazooqi, general director of the Smart Services Department at Dubai Police, said that by 2030, Dubai Police will have the first smart police station that won’t require human employees, by which stage a quarter of the emirate’s police force will be robots.

APRIL 2017

9

iMac G3

I

n the late 1990s, beige boxes populated the IT market as the latest desktop computer models that consumers could get their hands on, until the iMac G3 was released in 1998. The ‘Bondi blue’ model was marketed by Steve Jobs as looking like “it was from another planet,” with “better designers” than its competing counterparts at the time.

The iMac was a consumer version of the G3powered PowerMac and PowerBook – the only remaining computers in Apple’s line-up at the time after Jobs slashed all other models, including the popular Performa line.

It was the first of many in the ‘i’ revolution, and the curved shape of the 15-inch CRT was one of the machine’s defining features. The original iMac boasted a 233 Mhz G3 processor, 32 MB RAM, 4 GB hard drive and a 24x tray-loading CD-ROM drive.

However, the biggest addition to the iMac G3 was that it became the first Mac to include USB ports. The original model scrapped all previously-used ports, including SCSI and ADB connectors, and was also the first Mac without a floppy drive.

It cost $1,299 and shipped with Mac OS 8.1, but the machine was consistently updated after its initial release, meaning Mac OS 8.5 wasn’t far behind.

Aside from increasing specifications, including processor speed, hard-disk capacity, and video RAM, Apple replaced Bondi blue with new colours. Throughout its lifespan, the iMac was released in a total of thirteen colours.

10

APRIL 2017

www.tahawultech.com

Logitech GROUP DESIGNED FOR BIG ROOMS AND EVEN BIGGER IDEAS The amazingly affordable video conferencing system for your mid- to large-size meeting rooms “Logitech GROUP is a shining star within the “group conferencing add-on” market category. It is easy to install, ease to use, and provides a strong audio and video user experience.” – Wainhouse Research 2016

For more information: www.logitech.com/group LOGITECH GROUP

MSRP: $1’199

$1’499 with expansion mics

The race to innovate

As a crucial new pillar of CPI Media Group’s all-new platform, Tahawul Tech, CNME was delighted to host the debut edition of Your Voice, the new debate series for business leaders and technology decision makers in the Middle East. Technology heads from a range of verticals across the UAE gathered at Jumeirah Emirates Towers to have their say on the hot topic of 2017: innovation.

S

earching for that ‘eureka’ moment of discovery is what every business strives to achieve, and something that is becoming an increasing necessity in the challenging and competitive digital era that the Middle East now finds itself in.

While we don’t know exactly which innovations will drive growth in the next half-century, no one could have predicted the power that the Internet

A lot of innovation today is about democratising the way we offer services, increase ubiquity and make our services more easily available.

Albert Dias, co-founder, Musafir.com 12

APRIL 2017

would have on our day-to-day lives 30 years ago. Closer to home, are businesses finally waking up to the need to innovate in order to survive?

Venkatesh Mahadevan, senior technology and transformation leader, Dubai Investments, discussed the need to make internal alterations before rushing to accelerate the pace of change. “As a group, we’re not in a race to innovate,” he admitted. “What we’ve worked on over the last three or four years is getting the business in order, as opposed to digitising and automating every aspect, as I’m a big believer in the fact you mustn’t run before you can walk.”

Attempting to do too much too quickly in this way could majorly hinder a company’s progression in implementing new ideas. “What is worth remembering, is that even for these major tech projects – take Tesla for example – is that it’s an accumulation of little changes in order to achieve an end goal,” said Akram Assaf, CIO of Bayt.com.

Defining innovation can be a grey area across the industry, according to Sebastian Samuel, CIO, AW Rostamani.

“A lot of vendors coin cloud and mobility as innovation, but it’s much more about the individual changes you

make within your own organisation,” he said. “People used to talk about innovation as only being possible in high tech markets with the big giants, but I actually believe you can do more with less.”

A general consensus throughout the discussion was that innovation doesn’t necessarily always have to be about something new, and it could instead include making changes to existing infrastructures for the greater benefit of a business and its customers. “Changing something simple at the bottom of the pyramid to create a better customer experience can class as innovation,” said Albert Dias, co-founder of Musafir.com. “A lot of innovation today is about democratising the way we offer services, increase ubiquity and make our services more easily available.”

Similarly, while Ashith Piriyattiath, group head of IT at Al Masah Capital said that the investment firm “Wasn’t ready for digital transformation,” he outlined the steps the company has taken to create a steady state of business within its current infrastructure, while remaining compliant with DIFC regulations. “Our first step was to migrate everything www.tahawultech.com

Top, from left to right: Venkatesh Mahadevan Akram Assaf Shailesh Mani Below: Sivakumar Venkatraman Ashith Piriyattiath

to the cloud, and we have now successfully utilised this technology,” he said. “We initially focused on the ‘walk-into-store’ businesses, but since we started doing business with online promoters, such as Zomato, the business revenue in this segment has increased up to 18 percent.”

For the Middle East region, the stage is most certainly set for changes to accelerate and alter the way companies do business through technology, according to Assaf. “The region’s leadership, particularly in Dubai, is prepared to embark on experimentations in giving companies access to data to enable them to contribute to the growing economy,” he added.

In order to maximise the potential of government initiatives in encouraging transformation within the region, Samuel believes that more still needs to be done. “Private and public partnerships need to be stronger to create a more convenient way of company’s helping citizens,” he said.

“The Dubai government is starting this, but every department has a different culture and a consistent approach is lacking, meaning progress is not accelerating at the pace it should be for Dubai.” www.tahawultech.com

A lot of vendors coin cloud and mobility as innovation, but it’s much more about the individual changes you make within your own organisation.

Sebastian Samuel, CIO, AW Rostamani The discussion then moved onto barriers to innovation across organisations. “Innovation requires a cultural change,” said Sivakumar Venkatraman, CIO, Dubai First. “It is not just dependent on an IT department; every employee has to be inclined to change. I find that there is often pressure from executives at the top that feel they have invested so much into transformation but are not seeing enough results, but we need to ensure we stick together throughout our

innovation strategies if they are going to materialise successfully.”

Dias reflected on his position as a co-founder, and admitted that initiating innovation was somewhat easier for him as he doesn’t have to convince management or face pressure from the top. “However, the need to find people to carry forward our innovation vision is a hurdle we often face,” he said. “In this region, we’re so used to getting by and being complacent, whereas other regions see innovation as second nature and have much more enthusiasm. Finding talent in this region is not impossible, but it’s also not easy.”

Shailesh Mani, head of IT, LifePharma, discussed the barriers he faced in implementing an ERP solution at the company’s manufacturing facility. “Employees were wasting hours of valuable time carrying out tedious, manual processes and waiting for departmental approvals before they could progress with any changes,” he said. “I told my president that we needed to automate these processes, but executives believed it would create issues with auditors. I eventually persuaded them to let me demonstrate what it would mean across one department, and now our production processes are completely paperless.”

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13

ANALYSIS

Smart Dubai

Chain reaction Last October, the Dubai Government revealed its plans to shift all transactions to Blockchain and become completely paperless by 2020. If recent announcements are anything to go by, that target its well on the way to being achieved.

T

he Smart Dubai Office has announced the roll out of the first city-wide effort to implement Blockchain technology in city services in collaboration with IBM and ConsenSys. This effort represents a key step in the execution of Dubai Blockchain Strategy 2020, announced in October by the Dubai Future Foundation and the Smart Dubai Office, and is the first of its kind in the world.

“The announcement marks an important step forward in our commitment to delivering Dubai’s 14

APRIL 2017

Blockchain Strategy announced late last year by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai,” said H.E Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr, director general, Smart Dubai Office. “Collaborating with IBM as lead strategic partner, and ConsenSys as city advisor, will help expedite this process, attaining Smart Dubai’s overall vision of making everyday experiences more safe, seamless, efficient and impactful for all residents and visitors of the city.”

Over the coming months, Smart Dubai will conduct workshops with

key government, semi-government and private organisations in Dubai to identify and prioritise the services that can be most enhanced by the application of blockchain technology.

Moreover, a shared blockchain-as-aService (BaaS) platform will be built for Dubai Government entities to use for implementing their blockchain pilots and projects.

“We truly believe that we cannot do this alone, and we need to work closely with partners in both the public and private sector to deliver on this promise to make Dubai fully powered by www.tahawultech.com

blockchain,” said HE Wesam Lootah, CEO of Smart Dubai Government Establishment. “This collaborative effort is crucial to ensuring that the city as a whole is moving in the same direction, taking advantage of synergies, and avoiding duplication of efforts and costs.”

The strategy aims to improve the efficiency of government processes and encourage paperless transactions, cutting almost 100 million paper transactions annually.

This huge reduction in paper consumption will reportedly reduce 25 million work hours required annually in handling paper documents, which in turn will boost productivity of employees and leave a positive impact on the national economy.

“Dubai is at the forefront of adopting this transformative technology, and our collaboration demonstrates the government’s confidence that blockchain solutions will transform government service delivery,” said Takreem El-Tohamy, www.tahawultech.com

Blockchain will do for transactions what the Internet did for information.

Takreem El-Tohamy, general manager, IBM Middle East and Africa

general manager, IBM Middle East and Africa. “IBM believes that blockchain will do for transactions what the Internet did for information.”

In a later announcement, Smart Dubai also unveiled its development roadmap for artificial intelligence in Dubai and launched the first cognitive AI Lab in partnership with IBM.

The Lab will provide skills training for government and private sector employees and local students, host workshops for entities and individuals to experiment and build prototypes and provide go-to-market support for new services.

This latest announcement follows the release of ‘Saad’ in October – the city’s first government service utilising AI and powered by IBM Watson.

Speaking at the workshop in partnership with IBM, Dr. Bin Bishr explained the reasoning behind announcing the two initiatives in such close succession of each other.

“Both blockchain and AI are the main tools for the fourth industrial revolution. They are two different tools, each one with a different functionality, but the announcements have been so close together to show that the two tools are aligned for the benefit of Dubai. Our two main goals behind both announcements is to enhance the happiness of people in Dubai, and bring the future to today.”

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15

EVENT

Sage Summit Tour

‘Invisible admin’

For the Middle East and Africa leg of the Sage Summit Tour, global representatives gathered in Johannesburg to announce an array of regional product launches, highlight the work of the company’s charity initiative, and propose that business administration be made invisible by 2020. Glesni Holland reports from the Sandton Convention Centre.

I

n the presence of business partners and Sage delegates from across the globe, CEO Stephen Kelly was welcomed on stage to open day one of the Sage Summit by the Afrikan Tikkun Choir.

In this entertaining performance prior to Kelly’s keynote address, the audience was graced with a real taste of how the Sage Foundation is impacting non-profit organisations,

like the Tikkun Choir, across Africa.

The Sage Foundation is a charity initiative, whereby company employees are empowered to take five working days per year to volunteer in their local community to build sustainable social, economic and entrepreneurial opportunities.

“My most special day ever at Sage was when we launched the Sage Foundation here in South Africa in

Nobody ever started a business because they wanted to do admin, and our aim is to make admin invisible by 2020.

Stephen Kelly, CEO, Sage 16

APRIL 2017

Soweto, and we created a safe study centre for the local children,” said Kelly.

“I was genuinely amazed and shocked by the level of disparity felt by so many communities around the world, but also so touched by the incredible efforts of our colleagues, partners and customers to step in and help to bridge that gap.”

In line with Kelly’s vision of Sage becoming “more than just an accountancy firm,” he then went on to highlight the steps the company is taking in introducing innovative technology into product roadmaps.

“Nobody ever started a business because they wanted to do admin, and our aim is to make admin invisible by 2020,” he said.

The company has recently integrated artificial intelligence capabilities into the Sage One solution, in the form of a chatbot named ‘Pegg,’ and is now working on incorporating it into its X3 ERP software.

“We’re creating technology that can automate mundane tasks and make accounting solutions smarter, to allow you as our customers to make more www.tahawultech.com

Gil Oved, CEO, The Creative Counsel intuitive business decisions,” Kelly said. “Think of it as a world where AIpowered Sage products could manage your business, while still complying with all the fiscal legislation.”

Key product launches and developments announced at the Summit included Sage Live being made available to business builders in South Africa later this year, while Sage One Payroll is expected to launch in Kenya by the end of March, and in Nigeria by the end of June.

Sage X3 version 11 was also unveiled, with cloud deployment and ‘quick start’ configuration options.

“Our X3 roadmap demonstrates that it is a product that we build once, and continue to deliver on,” said Nick Goode, executive vice president, Product Management, Sage. “We’re now completely transforming our industry through real-time accounting and artificial intelligence.”

The latest version is said to give enterprises more control and visibility into their businesses, with features such as e-commerce management, manufacturing project management and automated bank statements.

“It’s a low-cost private cloud, which makes us accessible to the masses, and this is something that is very important to us,” said Keith Fenner, vice president, Sage Enterprise, Africa and Middle East.

He went on to give a bizarre analogy to elucidate the benefits of X3. “We’re transferring our focus from userinterface to user-experience, which can be seen in the roadmap. X3 is the www.tahawultech.com

Uber yourself, before you get Kodak-ed.

Valter Adão, leader of Deloitte Digital, Africa Claudia Schiffer of ERP; it is beautiful to look at, and it’s incredibly easy to use.”

According to Kelly, over a million customers have followed Sage to the cloud. “We are now set up for what your customers need today and in the future. But you know, and I know, its not enough in this rapidly changing technology space,” he concluded.

The topic of surviving in the digital era was a common theme throughout the Summit among guest speakers. Valter Adão, leader of Deloitte Digital, Africa, highlighted brand loyalty as a major challenge that many businesses are currently facing during his keynote speech.

“When Tesla speaks, we listen.

Yet, can we all immediately name the CEO of Ford, Vauxhall or Toyota? I suspect the answer to be no, and digitisation is the reason for this,” he said.

Adão went on to discuss the theory behind Moore’s Law and showed the evolution of technology since the late 1870s. “Going forward, technology will double in capability

and half in price every 18 months,” he said. It’s not even necessarily the largest businesses that will survive, but those that are the smartest and the most responsive to change. Uber yourself, before you get Kodak-ed.”

Gil Oved, CEO of The Creative Counsel, continued this discussion on day three of the Summit, and outlined his tips for how businesses can survive in this interconnected “brave new world.”

“Robert Frost once said that you have to take the road less travelled if you are to make a difference, but in this era that’s no longer enough,” he said. “You have to carve out a completely new road to survive and thrive in today’s brave new world.”

After showcasing a range of futuristic examples demonstrating how AI could replace human-centric tasks, Oved concluded, “Research from The Guardian shows that onethird of jobs will be lost to technology by 2025. Unless you are truly creative in what you do, you run the risk of being out of a job.”

APRIL 2017

17

CASE STUDY

Lego CEO Bali Padda

Building blocks Recently named the most powerful brand on the planet, Lego is adored the world over by its cultlike following. James Dartnell spoke with the firm’s CEO Bali Padda to find out how the company is transforming its success in physical blocks to a digital strategy that touches all fans young and old.

18

APRIL 2017

T

he unbridled joy felt by Lego fans of all ages is clearly not lost on Brand Finance.

The business valuation consultant recently named Lego the world’s most powerful brand, and that’s been a result of delivering some of the world’s most iconic toys and models since it was founded in 1932 in Billund, Denmark.

However, the firm is in the midst of ensuring that its huge success in selling physical blocks and figurines now translates into digital offerings for its customers. With a wide appeal that stretches from young children to adult aficionados, a whole host of elements have combined to build Lego into the brand it is today. Chief executive officer Bali Padda believes that the company’s strength lies not only in its value as a toy producer, but also in the educational aspects it brings to the table. “The invention of the Lego brick, and the broad, deep play experiences www.tahawultech.com

that the Lego system enables is key – how it fosters and enables creativity, imagination and collaboration,” he says. “This unique experience is what made me fall in love with the brand.”

Although the Lego brand has been crucial in making the company so successful, it is not lost on the firm’s leadership that it must continue to think outside the box in order to thrive. “The strategy and mission of the Lego Group remains unchanged,” he says. “We want to inspire and develop children – we want to do that by bringing creative Lego experiences to all children all over the world – and to do that we must globalise and continue to innovate. A dedicated focus on ensuring the highest quality and safety in the manufacturing of our product for decades has been crucial, and a continued focus on ensuring product innovation – and the dedication in our design teams to come up with new and exciting models that children find fun and relevant.”

Over the last few decades, the leading cities of the GCC – Dubai in particular – have cemented their reputation as being world leaders for leisure and tourism, and this has helped the firm make headway in the region. UAE residents will be aware that www.tahawultech.com

Legoland Dubai opened its doors in October 2016, and while Legoland parks are owned and operated by Merlin Entertainments – not the Lego Group itself – they continue to be an important pillar of the company’s brand. “I really believe that the Legoland parks everywhere in the world – also in Dubai – provide families and children with wonderful fun experiences in a setting where they are surrounded by the Lego brand and experiencing the potential of the Lego brick,” Padda says.

“I’m very happy with the opening of the Legoland park in Dubai, as it will allow even more families to have a Lego experience.”

Inevitably, the first things that come to mind with Lego are the limitless design combinations created by its iconic Bricks, and broad range of Minifigures. The company, by its very nature, is associated with being one of the most popular physical product producers in the world. While the need to reinforce that reputation remains, Padda is acutely aware that the company has to ensure that its digital products can also deliver a similar impact. “While we firmly believe that the physical Lego brick and hands-on building experience will remain relevant to children in future, we are actively seeking to explore how digitalisation can enhance the physical

While we believe that the physical Lego brick will remain relevant to children, we are actively seeking to explore how digitalisation can enhance the physical experience of play.

experience of play,” he says.

Padda and Lego are constantly looking for new ways that they can deliver an increasingly immersive experience for younger fans. In a world where children’s use of mobile devices has significantly increased, the firm has acknowledged that it needs to find a series of innovative ways to engage with its vast audience.

The Lego Life app has recently been launched in several countries, and is a social media platform that allows children from across the world to “share their passion” for Lego in a “safe” digital environment by customising their own Minifigure.

“This is an APRIL 2017

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Lego CEO Bali Padda

example of how we can create a fully digital experience that complements the physical Lego experience, and allows children to engage with other children – across cultures and borders,” Padda says.

In 2016, meanwhile, Lego launched NEXO Knights, a play experience which allows children to scan Lego brick shields – which are part of the physical Lego set – with the camera of their smart device in order to gain powers in a digital game where users play the characters of the NEXO Knights story. “This is an example of how we work to create a seamless play experience for children – allowing them to build and play in the physical world as well as digitally,” Padda says.

Lego Boost, meanwhile, is set to be launched later this year. Boost allows young children to physically build Lego robots that they can easily program afterwards. “This is an example of how we can embed digital experiences in the physical product – while enabling children to learn more about coding in a really fun way,” Padda says.

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What I plan to bring to the table as CEO is a focus on how we ensure that our organisation is agile and that we can act with a higher speed than today.

It’s not just customer-facing technology that Padda is focusing on to enhance Lego’s global appeal. With over 19,000 employees across the globe, there’s also a constant need to find new ways to innovate the company’s back end technology to deliver smoother operations, which in turn produce better results. “What I plan to bring to the table as CEO is a focus on how we – in order to deliver on our strategy – ensure that our organisation is agile and that we can act with a higher speed than today,” he says.

“Just as we explore how digitalisation can enhance the Lego play experience, we are seeking to explore how it can enhance the way we operate as a company.

This transcends all areas of the business – from using Big Data, to our employees having access to the applications and devices they need to deliver on their daily work. The end objective is to not only make it a benefit to the individual employee – but also ensure that we are able to deliver on our aspiration to reach all children in the world with a Lego experience.”

The company knows that information, above all else, holds the key to delivering a higher standard of products. “We see data as a way we can provide better services to our customers, business partners and consumers,” Padda says. He goes on to add that the way this information is managed takes on sacrosanct status for the company. “When it comes to data collection from consumers, we have strict guidelines for how we manage this data in a responsible manner.”

Lego’s Brick is ready for the digital age.

www.tahawultech.com

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CASE STUDY

McDonald’s UAE

Prakash Rao, Director of information systems, McDonald’s UAE

Taste of success

Technology continues to polish the golden arches of McDonald’s UAE. Director of information systems Prakash Rao has made it his mission to convert his vast operational experience within the company into a relaxing customer journey, efficient service and a skilled workforce across the country’s 156 restaurants and digital delivery platform.

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nstantly recognisable, the ‘golden arches’ of McDonald’s make it one of the world’s most powerful brands. With restaurants in 120 countries across the globe, the firm is synonymous with household favourites including the Big Mac and its French fries.

What many don’t realise, however, is the level of technology that goes into making all this possible. With the firm’s UAE operations encompassing 156 restaurants, 120,000 daily transactions and 4,500 employees, director of information systems Prakash Rao always has his hands full. All of the company’s national IT is centralised to its Sharjah HQ, where Rao is based, and it continues to be an essential pillar of the company’s products and services. “IT is now a differentiator at McDonald’s,” he says. “It’s not a support function, but a business unit.”

Now in his 19th year at McDonald’s UAE, Rao has developed a strong affinity with the company, and has made it his professional mission to have an inside-out knowledge of business operations. Prior to undertaking responsibilities for technology five years ago, Rao spent “10-12 years” working in operations at the company. This strong grounding has given him a clear understanding of what technology must deliver. “I understand the restaurant managers’ pain points,” he says. He is acutely aware that the company’s success has largely been built on people.

“McDonald’s believes in longevity, and is a very operationally-driven brand,” he says. “The management is very supportive of people.”

Rao and McDonald’s UAE www.tahawultech.com

We don’t want an order to spend 20 minutes on a bike before it reaches a customer.

are committed to providing the “experience of the future” to customers, and the company took a huge step in this journey when it launched its delivery website – one of the first regional restaurants to do so – mcdelivery.ae four years ago. “We want to be able to reach customer’s in their homes, and for them to be able to easily reach us,” Rao says.

McDelivery is already hugely popular across a range of Asian countries, but is currently not offered in most major European markets, and is only available in Manhattan and Virginia in the United States. Roughly 6 percent of McDonald’s UAE’s business is done through online delivery orders, representing success in the digital realm to date. Of the 156 operational restaurants within the country, 60 offer a delivery service.

The IT team has worked behind the scenes to optimise this service, and ensure that delivered products are kept as fresh as possible. One of the biggest challenges McDonald’s UAE had faced was the country’s PO

Box system and address grid, which often presents difficulties for drivers to pinpoint exact delivery locations.

This means that deliveries would not always arrive in optimal times. “We created a system whereby deliveries are only brought to customers within a 7-minute journey – as opposed to within a particular distance,” Rao says. “We created a grid system for each restaurant that determines which locations fall within this bracket. We don’t want an order to spend 20 minutes on a bike before it reaches a customer.”

Along with McDonald’s UAE’s customers, Rao is also tasked with ensuring staff within restaurants can do their jobs as efficiently as possible. “In many cases, it’s a question of shaving seconds off various processes,” he says. “With the sheer volume of transactions that go through our systems and customers that pass through our restaurants, these seconds become critical to our business.” The volume of monitors within the kitchen can make a huge difference in delivering a smooth back-house operation. “Five years ago, we would only have one or two screens in our restaurants,” he says.

“Now we have 15-20, which helps to make the production line as accurate and fast as possible.”

The IT infrastructure available to each restaurant is also in good shape.

Each restaurant features a server for greater redundancy, while 130 of the country’s restaurants feature a managed MPLS network. Free Wi-Fi is offered to customers, meanwhile.

“We’re far from stingy with our bandwidth,” Rao says. “It shows, because our customers are very APRIL 2017

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CASE STUDY

McDonald’s UAE

happy with the service.” The software available to each restaurant is also on point. Rao has installed a service desk across every restaurant and business department, which allows direct communication with head office for any IT issues that are faced. “This has drastically cut resolution times,” Rao says.

Rao’s personal commitment to McDonald’s and its staff has manifested itself in the training he has encouraged within the company. He has designed a series of workshops that give restaurant staff the IT skills needed to ensure restaurant operations continue to run smoothly if technical faults occur. Restaurant managers undertake 24 annual training sessions, including those in IT, and Rao’s training plays an important role in the program. “The company is all about training, and we know that it’s good for business continuity,” he says. “For example, if a screen breaks in the kitchen, our staff know how to replace it. The company’s IT skills are strong across the market, and operations knows IT well.”

He is an avid believer that IT staff – and employees across the business – must also have a comprehensive understanding of McDonald’s UAE’s operations in order to provide true business benefit through their respective roles. “I encourage my team to spend half a day per month in our restaurants,” he says. “Every member of our IT staff has to spend a month’s training period in a restaurant before they even work in our offices.”

With 85 percent of McDonald’s UAE’s sales coming from within restaurants, delivering a stress-free dining experience has always been a priority for the company. Peak 24

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I encourage my team to spend half a day per month in our restaurants.

times inevitably lead to ordering queues, and Rao realised this was a customer pain point that could be eased with the help of technology. He oversaw the introduction of orderfilling kiosks, which allow customers to order their food with higher levels of personalisation. “This means they

can now customise their meals while not having to queue, and then collect them from the counter” Rao says.

“Kiosks have helped to enhance the customer’s perception and experience. The interface looks like a big iPhone. We have a duty to make sure our restaurants look modern so that people return.”

In line with this ease of service, a clear vision for the future has also been laid out by Rao and the company. “We want people to be able to sit at a table and order their food from an app, and for it to then be brought to them,” he says.

“We currently do table service, but it’s a case of personalising that experience.” Rao is also keen to enhance McDonald’s UAE’s mobile app. “I’d like us to reach a stage where the app is even more personalised, and suggest offers for customers,” he says. “It’s all about providing the experience of the future.” www.tahawultech.com

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CASE STUDY

LifePharma

Shailesh Mani, head of IT, LifePharma

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www.tahawultech.com

Clean bill

In a bid to enhance efficiency, reduce costs and eventually become a predominantly paperless organisation, LifePharma’s head of IT Shailesh Mani opted to roll out a fresh ERP solution across the company’s Jebel Ali manufacturing facility.

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ifePharma has come a long way since its conception in 2011. Keeping track of the millions of products in its revamped Jebel Ali Free Zone manufacturing facility is no small task, but one that holds extreme importance in the pharmaceutical industry. Batch numbers are the golden ticket in monitoring the lifecycle of these products; they are monitored throughout the process and can be used to track any discrepancies with the product all the way back to the manufacturer.

At LifePharma, this journey was previously monitored through a range of manual log-books and paperintensive bundles of documentation.

Not only was this very time consuming to process and analyse, but it also created costly expenditures for the company in paper usage. In order to create a more efficient system and reduce the margin for error, the IT department - headed by Shailesh www.tahawultech.com

We’ve saved 10,000 sheets of paper per month by getting rid of log-books and automating various processes, which has resulted in significant reductions in cost outgoings.

Mani, opted to implement SAP’s ERP solution across the facility.

“When I joined LifePharma in 2015, the ERP implementation was half-done. It wasn’t live, so hours of time were still being wasted on a daily basis by each department through carrying out numerous manual processes,” he says.

The implementation has allowed LifePharma to successfully establish an electronic batch manufacturing reports system (EBMR) – crowning it “the only company in the pharmaceutical industry in the Middle East to have managed this,” according to Mani.

“This has created numerous benefits for us,” he says. “We have seen a huge amount of paper savings, as previously these reports would have been sent to our product development lab team for approval in the form of a 100-page document.

Now, the reports are sent through mailers and then reviewed and authenticated electronically.”

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CASE STUDY

LifePharma

Logistical issues of physically taking these documents between departments for approvals also caused delays in the manufacturing process. In addition, this new electronic process means that the authenticity of signatures cannot be altered, as it is digitally logged with the time and date as per the system.

Filing a change control document to the quality assurance department was previously a laborious task. “If any changes to a process need to be made, whether it be changing software or moderations in a product, a change control document had to be filled out,” explains Mani. “This document previously needed various approvals and comments from QA and the consent department before it could be implemented, which could have taken weeks to finalise.”

Following the ERP implementation, the change control documents are now uploaded onto the system and turned around in two business days.

“This drastic reduction in approval time has been a massive benefit in ensuring we can maximise our resource time,” says Mani.

Hygiene, and the avoidance of any cross-contamination in any medical environment is of the upmost importance. In order for a pharmaceutical firm to align with goods manufacturing practices (GMP), a number of tests need to be completed at various points in the day with results recorded, including temperature and humidity levels inside the production lab, as well as monitoring area and equipment cleaning. These tests were previously recorded manually in log-books.

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“We have now removed the log books completely from the production process, which has saved us approximately 2,000 log books per year; all of which were a minimum of 50 pages each,” says Mani. “The system now notifies the team to regularly check the maintenance of machines so that we never fall behind. With everything digitised, this reinforces auditors to see that we’re remaining GMP compliant.”

LifePharma’s digital journey is just beginning, however. There are still a total

With everything digitised, this reinforces auditors to see that we’re remaining GMP compliant.

of 120 standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the production department alone, which must first be learned by 80 percent of staff before they can be approved by quality assurance and become effective procedures.

Training 80 percent of the facility’s 200 staff members in these processes was not the most pressing

issue, says Mani. “Previously, we had to go through all of the SOP records to see who was trained in which process before we could send it for approval,” he says. “Now, the document management system is completely optimised on the SAP software. Once the procedure has been passed by staff and approved by QA, the system notifies remaining staff members who are still yet to pass the assessment.”

In the production area alone, the major cost saving is clear to see. “We’ve saved 10,000 sheets of paper per month by getting rid of log-books and automating various processes, which has resulted in significant reductions in cost outgoings,” says Mani. “We’ve also effectively utilised our resource time, and no longer spend unnecessary time maintaining and preparing our log-books for auditors.”

Looking ahead, Mani maintains that while approximately half of the QA processes are now paperless, the primary aim is to incorporate quality control (QC) automation into the ERP system. “We currently produce manual analytical data sheets as part of our QC procedure, and this is definitely something we’re looking to integrate onto the system, along with other processes, before the end of the year,” he says.

LifePharma has already gained the approval of health authorities from the EU GMP, UAE GMP and the GCC GMP – among others - to trade in their markets, and Mani has high hopes that they will have achieved USFDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) compliance by the end of 2017 to expand the firm’s global reach. www.tahawultech.com

The people's choice For the eighth edition of the Network World Middle East Awards, CNME wanted to put power in the hands of its readers. For the first time in the event’s history, CNME’s audience had a chance to have their say in recognising networking excellence, by honouring end users and vendors who have demonstrated innovative leadership and technology deployment.

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he eight annual Network World Middle East Awards returned last month, and gave readers the chance to recognise those that have made the best use of networking technologies in extracting strategic value and maximising returns for their businesses. A panel 30

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of judges, comprising industry experts, shortlisted finalists for each category from a pool of 250 nominations, before readers were given the chance to have their say on who should be crowned our 2017 winners. The annual event, held at the Habtoor Grand Beach Resort and Spa, honoured networking projects

that have produced significant results over the past twelve months, and recognised the technology providers behind them. With awards spanning across 19 vendor and end-user categories, all of our winners from a variety of verticals demonstrated fantastic initiatives with specific and measurable outcomes. www.tahawultech.com

Judges: Paul Black

Madhav Rao

Ajay Rathi

Paul Black is responsible for all telecoms and media consulting and research projects for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey at IDC. With over 14 years’ experience in telecommunications spanning Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, he has managed a vast array of high-profile projects including startup operations, business processes, strategic planning, product and service portfolio creation, BSS deployment, and go-to-market planning.

Madhav Rao is the chief information officer of Lulu Group International.

With a Masters in Business Administration and over 20+ years of experience manages the technology infrastructure and applications for the Group’s diverse business units , including retail, importdistribution and food processing to name a few. He has been instrumental in keeping the Group abreast of IT developments and emerging technologies and has implemented appropriate innovative and cost effective solutions.

Ajay Rathi is the chief information officer of Meraas Holding, and has more than 20 years of IT experience across multiple verticals such as oil and gas, investment, hospitality, healthcare and property development. He has a wealth of management experience and proven leadership ability in the development, operation and maintenance of IT infrastructure systems.

www.tahawultech.com

APRIL 2017

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VENDOR AWARDS

Networking Vendor of the Year FINALISTS Juniper Networks Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Linksys Aruba, a HPE company TP-Link Cisco VMware Dell EMC D-Link

Winner: Dell EMC

Enterprise Collaboration Project of the Year Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Avaya Cisco

Winner: Cisco

Network Management and Monitoring Vendor of the Year FINALISTS Infoblox ManageEngine Netscout Systems

Winner: Netscout Systems 32

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www.tahawultech.com

Network Optimisation Vendor of the Year FINALISTS F5 Networks Riverbed Silver Peak

Winner: F5 Networks

Wireless Vendor of the Year Aruba, a HPE Company D-Link Infinet Wireless Linksys

Winner: Aruba, a HPE Company

Network Cabling Vendor of the Year FINALISTS Nexans Cabling Solutions Norden Communication Siemon

Winner: Siemon www.tahawultech.com

APRIL 2017

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Network Security Vendor of the Year FINALISTS Cisco Fortinet Mimecast Sonicwall Sophos

Winner: Sonicwall

Network Training Provider of the Year FINALISTS Fast Lane Koenig TNC Middle East

Winner: TNC Middle East

Networking Value-Added Distributor of the Year FINALISTS Aptec, an Ingram Micro company Bulwark Distribution Spectrami

Winner: Aptec, an Ingram Micro company 34

APRIL 2017

www.tahawultech.com

END-USER AWARDS

Collaboration Project of the Year FINALISTS Aswaaq Drake & Scull Emirates Palace Hotel Gulf Air Health Authority Abu Dhabi

King Abdulla Medical City RTA Saudi Red Crescent Authority YBA Kanoo Group

Winner: Drake & Scull

Storage Project of the Year FINALISTS Amwaj Rotana Hotel Civil Services Commission, Kuwait Jotun Powder Coatings

Winner: Jotun Powder Coatings

Enterprise Mobility Project of the Year FINALISTS Al Safeer Group Aswaaq Gulftainer Mashreq Bank RTA Thuraya Telecommunications Company

Winner: Mashreq Bank www.tahawultech.com

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Data Centre Project of the Year FINALISTS Al Masah Capital Al Safeer Group Dubai Municipality eHDF

General Civil Aviation Authority Gulf Air Nakheel

Winner: General Civil Aviation Authority

Virtualisation Project of the Year FINALISTS Abu Dhabi University Al Zahra Hospital Avivo Group Dubai Customs Gulf Air King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Skyline University College Thuraya Telecommunications Company

Winner: Dubai Customs

Network Security Project of the Year FINALISTS GCAA Gulf Air RAK Bank RTA Sidra Medical Research Centre

Winner: RAK Bank 36

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www.tahawultech.com

Editor’s Choice

Winner: Nakheel

Editor’s Choice

Winner: Zulekha Hospitals www.tahawultech.com

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Private Sector Networking Project of the Year FINALISTS Al Mawarid Bank Dulsco Gulf Air McDonald’s UAE Medcare Tamer Group

Winner: Gulf Air

Public Sector Networking Project of the Year FINALISTS BAPCO Dubai Customs Dubai Municipality Emirates Red Crescent Tecom

Winner: Dubai Municipality 38

APRIL 2017

www.tahawultech.com

FEATURE

Tackling vendor lock-in

LOCK AND KEY

All too often, technology vendors hold their customers to ransom when it comes to renegotiating deals or exiting contracts. What can end users do to protect their long-term interests and ensure that they are not at the mercy of those whose technology they use daily?

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he CIO-vendor relationship can often be described as a love-hate affair. For every technology decision maker who claims that their hardware, software and service providers have “transformed their business” or “given them a platform to innovate” there will be another who does not see things in such a rosy light. From the moment many CIOs sign on the dotted line, they find their technology roadmaps increasingly restricted, as well as being subjected to manipulative and aggressive sales practices.

Still, love them or loathe them, vendors play an essential role in business operations, and CIOs are always tasked with protecting their employer’s interests in any technology deal.

A consequence of entering an ongoing partnership worth hundreds of thousands – or even millions – of dollars is that the recipient of that investment will not want it to cease. A 2016 IDC report says, “All too often, vendors have a top hand,” in relationships with end users, citing a range of factors, including high switching costs, in their advantageous position. Meanwhile, other “vendor control points” including exclusive record integrations or overly customised applications, can www.tahawultech.com

No CIO should feel trapped in today’s world.

Adrian Pickering, regional head, MENA, Red Hat

cause problems if end users wish to switch supplier.

Ahmad Al Emadi, IT infrastructure project manager at Dubai Municipality – who recently transformed its IT systems by introducing a software-defined networking platform – is a firm believer that end users need to be guided by strong principles and preparation to get the best possible deal. “Vendors will always try to squeeze you, and that’s the market,” he says.

“In my experience, the vendor should never have the upper

hand,” he adds. “As an end user, it’s imperative that you ensure competition between vendors, and don’t allow yourself to get cornered, either contractually or financially.

It depends from customer to customer, but whoever gets the upper hand is usually the winner.

If you don’t have a strong team in place to evaluate vendors, then they will definitely do as much as they can to influence your IT.” However, Adrian Pickering, Red Hat’s regional head for the Middle East and North Africa region, does not believe that local CIO’s are largely backed into corners by their existing technology providers. “CIO’s have the discretion to challenge incumbent vendors if they are willing to assess alternate solutions and options,” he says. “This may take considerable assessment depending on the solution or technology, but no CIO should feel trapped in today’s world.”

Chief information officers all over the Middle East are all too familiar with pressures that inevitably result from the deployment of powerful software on existing, limited hardware. An all-important application upgrade can push an organisation’s CPU to the limit, and Al Emadi believes that situations in which software APRIL 2017

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is dependent on a vendor’s corresponding hardware can leave end users in a catch 22 situation.

“You need to be careful with certain projects if things are going to be stuck close together,” he says. “If you are in a situation where every time you want to upgrade your software, you are also forced to upgrade your hardware, is that not forced? Vendors often make it very hard to get out of using their products, and the alternative – migrating your data to a new product – is tough.”

With these challenges as a backdrop, end users are forced to tread carefully when opting for technology partners. The IDC report goes on to add, “By evaluating technology portfolios with vendor lock-in considerations in mind, an enterprise is better able to assess its leverage points heading into major negotiations with vendors.

Decisions to implement competing technologies in parallel with each other may help create leverage points for the enterprise that help combat the control points set by the vendors.”

Pickering believes that to avoid being exposed in their dealings with technology providers, end users must involve other senior stakeholders within their organisation to ensure a strong end result. “CIO’s will need to work with their finance, legal and procurement departments to ensure that they have an effective technology procurement policy that is in the best interests of their business and their internal customers,” he says.

While those purchasing 42

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As an end user, it’s imperative that you ensure competition between vendors, and don’t allow yourself to get cornered.

Ahmad Al Emadi, IT infrastructure project manager, Dubai Municipality technology can implement as many strong processes and skilled people to combat long term issues, evolving technology can always throw a spanner in the works. As any seasoned end user knows, product lifecycles are becoming increasingly short, demanding more technology refreshes over time.

Al Emadi is particularly conscious of the end user’s need to ensure that they plan their roadmap as effectively as possible to avoid any nasty surprises. “If you aren’t aware of unanticipated costs, or what you are doing with the product, you could run into trouble,” he says. “Things may be fine for the first three years of a contract, but then the goal posts can be moved in year’s four and five and the demands placed on the end user completely change. It’s useful to know the vendor’s R&D plans to know how they will manage the product going forward.”

When it comes to technologies of the present and future, cloud

computing has often promised to lift the burden of vendor lock-in from CIOs. That’s what vendors say, at least. According to a Logicworks survey by Wakefield Research, 78 percent of IT decision makers believe that concerns about vendor lock-in prevent their organisation from maximising the benefits of cloud resources. The majority of IT leaders choose not to fully invest in cloud because they value long-term vendor flexibility over long-term cloud success. The challenges of moving data back and forth and in different formats before it goes to a new provider also remains an inhibitor for many organisations.

Al Emadi believes that ensuring a “360 degree” view of the decision making process can equip a buyer for a whole host of oncoming challenges. “If you have a team that is strong on the technical and financial sides, then there’s no reason why you can’t get a good deal,” he says. www.tahawultech.com

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FEATURE

Digitising processes

One-track mind

Even if businesses have already realised the need to use digital channels to maintain relevance, relatively few have acted on the changes to their business models and many fail to appreciate how fast these changes need to happen. What can organisations do to maximise the potential that digitalisation has to offer?

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he phrase ‘digital transformation’ was the most overused buzzword of 2016, but not without just cause. The concept of a ‘transformation journey’, centred around making enterprises ready for tomorrow’s consumers and business models, is one that many companies claim to have embarked on. However, in some cases, organisations seem to have stalled in pursuing the progression of this journey.

That’s not to say that the the right intentions aren't there, particularly in this region. National transformation agendas, such as the UAE Vision 2021, Saudi Vision 2030, and Qatar National Vision 2030, are all driving the adoption of innovative technologies to push companies forward in their digitisation process.

But how many companies that claim to have “gone digital” at this stage, actually have?

The benefits of a business digitising information-intensive processes are well known. First and foremost, the ability to cut costs is music to company’s ears, but digitisation can also help employees improve productivity levels, gather useful market insights and improve the integration of processes and operations. “With real-time insights of smart city data and citizen services, customer purchasing history and employee habits, organisations can be more responsive to citizens and customers, be better able to www.tahawultech.com

Most organisations are not realising the full value from their digital projects, because they fail to recognise that their digital strategy and business strategy are becoming one and the same.

Mike Weston, vice president, Cisco Middle East drive process improvements and innovation, and save time and money,” says George Riding, chief operating officer, SAP MENA. Automating business processes and workflows with a clear approval sequence will also help eliminate unnecessary human mistakes, believes Sobhi Shashaa, vice president, Enterprise Technology Solutions, Raqmiyat.

The real imperative in a world where ‘everything’ is digitised is that businesses need to pursue innovation to disrupt their own business model before the competition does. “Every industry sector is moving from the information age to the digital age,” says Mike Weston, vice president,

Cisco Middle East. “By 2020, 75 percent of businesses will be a digital business or preparing to be one.”

But the stakes for not making this transition fast enough are high, and Cisco and IMD Global Centre’s latest research predicts that four out of ten companies will fail in the next five years due to digital disruption.

In order for businesses to survive in this new era, a ‘digital-first’ approach across all verticals is a must if an organisation’s IT is to broadly transform. “This is only possible if an interconnected orientated architecture is adopted,” says Jeroen Schlosser, managing director, Equinix MENA. “Studies have shown that countries that have more open data APRIL 2017

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Digitising processes

ecosystems and competitive ICT infrastructures are better positioned to leverage digital technologies for business. However, organisations in the MENA region are yet to fully embrace the digital opportunity.”

The adoption of the latest technologies is critical to driving transformation, but it is not the only factor. Creating new strategic directions, and ensuring the right culture of innovation is felt throughout an organisation is crucial in accelerating the pace of change.

Stephen Fernandes, executive vice president, TransSys Solutions, believes this is only achievable through a top-down leadership approach. “Taking this approach to relook at the organisational structure, executive roles, departmental processes, technology decisions, and finally the basis of organisational culture, is fundamental to success,” he says.

Having the right technology in place is all well and good for a company looking to progress in the digital era, but it’s no use if the organisation’s workforce can’t

comprehend the technology fully to maximise its potential. “Business transformation requires a nextgeneration workforce that is digitallysavvy, creative and accustomed to constant change,” Weston adds.

Luckily, it appears that the Middle East’s increasing population is bringing with it a whole host of tech-savvy individuals, according to a recent “Workforce 2020” survey conducted

by Oxford Economics and SAP. The research shows that cloud skills in the UAE over the past three years have grown by 160 percent, analytics skills by 88 percent, mobility by 58 percent and social media by 28 percent.

‘Generation Y’ already play a major role in accelerating the emergence of a new, digital world, and their impact is impossible to ignore. The explosion of interconnected devices, platforms and channels has produced a generation who are consistently plugged-in.

However, a recent report by McKinsey confirms that despite this, the Middle East is lagging far behind in digitisation when compared to the likes of Norway, Singapore, South

Digitisation is not a passing trend; it is a revolution that is taking place at this very moment.

Jeroen Schlosser, managing director, Equinix MENA 46

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Korea and the United Kingdom.

Nevertheless, predictions estimate that there will be a massive increase in the amount of data circulating the region by 2020 – 2 zettabytes to be exact. But according to the report, the Middle East is not advancing quickly enough to capture anywhere close to the full potential of digital.

When analysing the industries in this region that have begun to showcase results in their journeys, government and public sector organisations are the primary drivers setting the pace of adoption.

According to a Cisco Consulting Services study, Dubai’s public and private sectors, driven by the Smart City initiative, can achieve a potential AED 17.9 billion ($4.87 billion) in value by 2019 through utilising the Internet of Things. Where private sector organisations are going wrong, according to Weston, is they are “failing to recognise that their digital strategy and business strategy are becoming one and the same.”

However, aside from government entities, we have seen strong interest in digitisation from industries such as healthcare, education, and transport and logistics. In the oil and gas space, ENOC and EPPCO have developed an RFID-enabled prepaid fuelling system, that allows a fully automated and paperless service that optimises drivers’ time by eliminating the need for cash, fuel cards and receipts.

As the pressure continues to mount on organisations to push forward in their digitisation efforts, it is guaranteed that we will see further developments before too long.

“Digitisation is not a passing trend; it is a revolution that is taking place at this very moment,” says Schlosser. www.tahawultech.com

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FEATURE

Public sector success

Public promise Almost every government across the GCC has committed to a future built around technological innovation in a push towards knowledge-based economies. Which countries can they learn from in terms of delivering beneficial IT projects to their citizens?

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he ambition of the GCC’s governments has been evident not only in their countries’ burgeoning infrastructures over the last few decades, but also in their ICT strategies for the future.

Initiatives such as Smart Dubai, Qatar Connect 2020 and Saudi Vision 2030 have all identified technology as a crucial pillar in building more educated and connected societies. And rightly so. In the last few years, the reality that fossil fuel-dependent economies need to diversify has been striking against the backdrop of the falling oil price.

Nonetheless, while GCC governments’ strategies may be on the right track, they would be well-advised to heed the examples of countries around the world who have already succeeded in delivering transformational ICT solutions for their citizens.

Alaa Elshimy, managing director and vice president, Huawei Enterprise Business, Middle East, believes that the GCC’s leaders need to prioritise their citizen’s needs before anything else. “From a strategy perspective, governments need to operate with the underlying objective of serving the public, by placing user needs as the top priority,” he says. “Public services need to be delivered in a creative manner, customised to user needs.”

Elshimy goes on to add that a culture of openness is essential in building the public’s trust. “There also needs to be a strong culture of transparency and sharing of government-owned data with the public. In addition, communication and collaboration between government departments is highly encouraged.”

Yasser Zeineldin, CEO, eHosting DataFort, agrees that openness needs to be a central part of a government’s thinking. “For an effective government ICT strategy, it is important for citizens and government organisations to collaborate and for the government to promote open data amongst different public sector organisations,” he says. www.tahawultech.com

More than three decades ago, Singapore recognised ICT as a key enabler and they planned and executed several master plans towards becoming a smart and intelligent nation.

Yasser Zeineldin, CEO, eHosting DataFort Estonia Elshimy and Zeineldin may well have had Estonia in mind when picturing a nation that has excelled in terms of its transparency with technology.

Not a country that springs to mind for technological innovation, Estonia’s government has strived to empower its 1.3 million citizens with ease of service and openness of data.

This culture has been ingrained for some time now. Estonian passed its Digital Signatures Act in 2000, and allowed purely online voting for its governmental elections five years later, and has since had its IT systems defined by its national public key infrastructure. This sees citizens bound to their cryptographic keys, allowing them to sign contracts in electronic or paper form, as well as accessing a whole host of government services with their unique identity number.

The government has gone a few steps further in this drive for technology openness for its citizens, however.

Mobile ID-enabled SIM cards are almost ubiquitous in the country, while citizens can view a record of who has accessed their data across government agencies, and are able to report public sector employees who access their data without just cause.

Singapore An Asian counterpart leading the way for ICT development has some notable similarities to the country with the strongest ICT infrastructure in the GCC. Singapore, like the UAE, has a small population and a large expatriate community. In 2015, the government introduced the ‘Smart Nation’ initiative with the aim of Singapore becoming the world’s first smart nation by 2025.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2016, meanwhile, Singapore was the highest-placed country in the world in network readiness.

“Singapore is definitely a shining example when it comes to providing ICT services to its citizens, where citizens and businesses in the country can access more than 1,600 online services and more than 300 mobile services provided by the government,” Zeineldin says. “More than three decades ago, Singapore recognised ICT as a key enabler and they planned and executed several master plans towards becoming a smart and intelligent nation.”

Elshimy agrees, “Singapore has shown great progress in ICT transformation, especially with their ‘Smart Nation’ initiative,” he says.

He goes on to cite other nations APRIL 2017

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that have already made significant progress, particularly those in the Asia-Pacific region. “Australia, Singapore, South Korea and the United Kingdom are some countries that are leading the way in digital transformation.”

On the right track There’s no doubt that regional governments are on the right track, as the pace of development on home soil continues to accelerate. The consensus is that the UAE has set the standard in the region for the pace of optimisation, with a view to digital transformation. “Gulf countries have been increasingly coping with the need for rapid digitalisation in business and government,” Elshimy says.

In a study commissioned by Huawei and undertaken by global research firm Navigant, Dubai emerged first in a smart city index that studied 10 Gulf cities’ strategies and execution of smart city campaigns. Dubai stood

There needs to be a strong culture of transparency and sharing of government-owned data with the public.

Alaa Elshimy, managing director and vice president, Huawei Enterprise Business, Middle East

out for its strategic vision coupled with a clear understanding of the practical requirements to deliver on it.

“The UAE in particular has been instrumental in leading the way for ICT transformation in the GCC, and will continue to for the foreseeable future,” Elshimy adds. “The main reason is the continued development in the country’s new initiatives such as Smart Dubai, e-Government, and the recently announced 10X initiative, among others.”

Zeineldin agrees on the region’s standout nation for technology deployment. “The UAE definitely leads in the GCC region in terms of digital adoption, with Dubai leading the way to becoming the smartest city in the world,” he says. “Dubai has witnessed smart infrastructure being built based on the latest and cutting-edge technology, and the government now aspires to transform the emirate not only as the smartest city but also the happiest city in the world over the next few years.”

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INTERVIEW

Stephan Scholl, president. Infor

‘The iPhone of business systems’ James Dartnell sat down with Infor president Stephan Scholl to discuss the firm’s ambitious plans to quintuple its regional market share in the next five years, and why it is now finding stability under new leadership within the India, Middle East and Africa region.

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he 131 percent year-onyear growth Infor has achieved in the Middle East shows real progress has been made recently, but your series of regional leadership changes in the last few years also suggest things have been rocky.

Why’s that been the case?

Until Tarik Taman joined as IMEA general manager, we had a channels-only strategy, meaning that we were trying to rely on partners to represent our brand and our coverage model. In a region that is this dynamic, where relationships are so important, customers want to hear directly from the company and have local delivery capabilities and commitment for the long run.

It wasn’t an issue with individuals.

We were doing well in that mid-market segment with a couple of upmarket transactions, but the upmarket demand for our new services around digital and cloud made us realise that we weren’t servicing the market right. www.tahawultech.com

Have I declared success around cloud yet? No, it’s a journey.

It’s now a whole new team of people servicing customers directly.

Tarik has claimed that Infor is the ‘iPhone of business systems’ – which industries will you disrupt?

Of the 13 major industries that we have complete cloud suites for, the four that we’re aiming to disrupt are manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare and the public sector as one, and retail.

How will Amazon Web Services’ – your cloud provider – recent outage affect the perception around cloud, and in your cloud services?

There was an article three days after the outage which reported outages across cloud providers, including Microsoft, IBM and AWS, and AWS had the lowest rate by a mile.

When you think about failovers and production systems, AWS has such a great track record, to the extent that I would say they are better than www.tahawultech.com

companies running on their own internal data centres. I’m not too worried about it.

AWS aside, does the outage expose the shortcomings of cloud, and show how something as unavoidable as human error could cause such havoc?

I’ve talked to about 15 customers who are working on big cloud deals, and last week they viewed it as a hiccup.

At least two of them said that they’d previously had their own outages, which took days to get up and running again. At least with AWS, you saw them get through it and respond quickly. Not one customer that I’ve spoken to has said they won’t go through with work or that they’re worried about it.

How is the $2 billion investment you received from Koch Industries being spent?

It starts at the top with their CEO,

Charles Koch, and he leads a $115 billion conglomerate looking at digital as a huge disruptor to their business model. I can’t believe the comfort it gives us around them believing that they can completely upend how they do business through digital transformation. They’re aggressively working with us on global HR and financials implementation – we already have our first two projects there – and asset management, including IoT platforms, which they’re putting in their refineries.

They’re looking at digital as a means of preventative maintenance.

One maintenance call is a $25 million pain point for them. Personally, I’m glad it was Koch that made the investment and not another PE firm.

They have size and scale, and view us as the digital disruptor of their business. They have a different business mindset around short versus long-term. They don’t have a PE mindset, and take a minimum of APRIL 2017

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INTERVIEW

Stephan Scholl, president. Infor

five years, and mostly a 10-15-year view of a business model. That’s not dissimilar to Infor in some respects.

They have the same ilk of not forcing us into a one, two or three-year cycle. In our business, that’s a rarity.

Are there any prospects of an Infor IPO in the near future?

Charles Koch and Koch Industries have said that’s always on the table.

If anything, they’d want to do it for branding. When you think we’d be one of the biggest IPOs of all time, the branding would help us. But otherwise, there’s no other reason to do it today. We don’t need it for the money or our capital structure. Our debt maturities are good with Koch investment.

You often discuss how Infor’s mission is to have mission-critical applications in the cloud, and to run a business in the cloud. Is that being achieved globally and in the Middle East?

Absolutely, and at a faster pace than I thought. Have I declared success yet? No, it’s a journey, but who would have thought that a year ago, a company like Triumph in the UK who sell motorcycles would move their mission critical apps into the cloud.

Travis Perkins, another British firm, has mission critical apps for 24,000 users in the cloud. Our competitors didn’t think that would happen.

They thought it would just be HR, financials and CRM, but for me, it’s been exciting to see such a big market opportunity for us.

‘Innovation’ is the buzzword of the day in Dubai’s tech industry. What do you make of the GCC’s appetite for it and how have you seen examples of it in the Middle East?

I’ve been impressed with the globalised view of companies in Dubai.

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In Dubai, the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, we’re seeing customers move very aggressively to cloud discussions and solutions.

Most companies that do business in Dubai also do business in Europe and around the world. We’re seeing the expansion of companies here going global. Also, local companies are not only relying on global supply, they’re building relationships with distributors, customer logistics and manufacturing support.

In Dubai, the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, we’re seeing customers move very aggressively to cloud discussions and solutions.

Why have you chosen to base your first non-US-based Hoop & Loop design agency in Dubai?

People are hungry and ready to move quickly in this region. Whether it’s

government or private industry, they want to move quickly and build big.

The number of people in that agency will be demand-based. The good news is that we can hire rapidly. We’re also opening an agency in London, so it’ll be Dubai, New York and London.

Do you think proposed visa law changes to the UAE could present an opportunity for Infor in building an innovation hub in the UAE? I do. A lot of it will be based on local demand. I don’t think we’re at a point where we can take design thinking and make a centre of excellence for the rest of the world, but if we take one for the Middle East, that makes a lot of sense to build on the Hook & Loop investment.

We went to a small town outside of Wroclaw in Poland and found two of the best universities that were English-speaking, and we’ve hired 500 people in less than a year to build a Poland data centre.

We’ve just bought Accentia Middle East in Cairo, which has around 100 employees. I’ve told them to create a business plan to make it a 500-person organisation as fast as possible so that we can build a centre of excellence to support not just the Middle East, but also Europe and the US. If there is similar applicability around universities, education and demand, we will absolutely build one www.tahawultech.com

INTERVIEW

Stephen Kelly, CEO, Sage

We believe that it is inevitable for all of our business customers to adopt this technology and ultimately run their business from the palm of their hand.

‘Frictionless and automated’ On the sidelines of the Sage Summit in Johannesburg, Glesni Holland caught up with CEO Stephen Kelly, to find out how the company is embedding a range of new technologies into its products to enhance its customers’ experience.

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ou clearly want Sage to be seen as more than just an accountancy firm. How are you using technology to enhance this ambition?

Accountancy is the core of every business. Ultimately, we envisage our customers being able to move money in and out of their businesses in a completely frictionless and totally automated manner. We are currently building technology that allows businesses to deploy the best solutions to carry out that movement of money. We’re also very minded to exploit and leverage embedded technology, such as AI and machine learning, to really enhance the quality of the insights that we’re providing our customers. The interface of choice for the current workforce of millennials is Facebook Messenger, which is why our chatbot (Pegg) sits on this interface and uses it to drive transactions into your accounting engine.

We, as consumers, have had the luxury of this technology in smartphones now for the last 10 years, and we believe that it is inevitable for all of our business customers to adopt this technology and ultimately run their business from the palm of their hand. Our overall aim is for businesses to have a better experience with Sage software than they do in their consumer life when they’re using alternative apps, such as WhatsApp, FaceTime or Facebook.

How will the integration of AI into enterprise software benefit business operations?

I talk a lot about this word ‘frictionless’, but it’s mainly www.tahawultech.com

around allowing AI to drive the transactions end-to-end, as well as having the learning capabilities to ultimately give better prompts to business leaders to gain better insights and make better decisions.

Pegg starts learning behaviours, so for example if you have a collection of customers that you collect payments from, it can start to understand how certain customers like to pay – be it through debit card or credit card – some might even like an old fashioned cheque. It’s having that intelligence embedded in the application which is learning not only through business processes, but also through the preferences and personality of the customer or supplier. This ensures that the movement of money happens in the right way, through the right channel and with the right preferences.

How do you think the progression of ERP in the cloud is going?

From a MEA regional perspective, South Africa and Dubai are way ahead of the rest in terms of cloud adoption in the ERP space. The market is absolutely on fire, and some of our biggest business partners attached to X3 – our cloud ERP solution – have really positive outlooks. We have very high demand within our existing customers and our prospective customers for this solution. With the latest version, we allow customers to have the choice between on-premise and the cloud.

X3 is marketed as ‘not your typical ERP solution.’ What differentiates it from others in the market?

The speed of implementation is a particular differentiator. It takes about 3 months, whereas some of the other companies in the ERP space can be 9-12 months – some even 36 months – so the time to value is really

critical. The reason that we’re able to implement it so much quicker is that the typical SAP and Oracle solutions in the market take a very customised approach, and enable you to start building your own solution from day one. With X3, I wouldn’t say it’s stock standard. It’s very customisable in terms of parameters and add-ons, but in essence, the system exists from the very beginning, so that enables us to implement it at a quicker rate.

The total cost of ownership is also dramatically lower. X3 is on the market for approximately 40 percent of the price in comparison to our competitors, and customers are still getting around 70 percent of the features. From a value-for-money perspective, it makes a lot of sense.

We like to say that it’s a third of the price and double as good, but as an ex-salesman, I appreciate that there is a government health warning with saying that.

What are you hoping to have achieved by the end of 2017 in the Middle East and Africa region from a technology perspective?

There will be so much more to come around mobile-first and cloud solutions. The message that we want to get across to our customers is that Sage will look after you, and transition you to the newest technology at a pace you are comfortable with.

We have a whole graft of product innovations and launches this year in the region, as we’ve demonstrated here, from Pegg, Sage One, X3 Cloud and Sage Live which is coming in July – which was recently noted as being the most innovative product of the year by Salesforce. By the end of this year, when you scan the horizon of the MEA region, we want Sage to be crowned the vendor with the most innovative cloud solutions for both start-ups and enterprises.

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INSIGHT

David Whitton, regional general manager, Kodak Alaris Information Management

Top priority David Whitton, regional general manager of Kodak Alaris Information Management, on why organisations should be focusing on perfecting their digital transformation strategies.

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n today’s digital age, getting smarter about data and taking steps to ensure that information is no longer an under-utilised asset, needs to be a high priority on the business agenda. Organisations should view digital transformation not as a challenge, but as an opportunity for them to manage information with greater efficiency, facilitate better sharing and collaboration, reduce costs, boost productivity and improve the bottom line. Here are a few tips for accelerating digital transformation.

Focus on end-to-end digital processes Due to increased manual effort, paper produces the highest costs and the largest loss of time. In today’s era of near real-time communication, this is no longer viable. Take a close look at all paper-based workflows; most of them are recurring routine operations, which can be easily automated and thus made more efficient.

Input management is part of the overall digital strategy Create a ‘paper firewall’, so that costly paper-based operations do not enter into business processes in the first place. Scanning information, at the point it enters the organisation and 58

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seamlessly integrating the data within business processes and workflows, ensures greater control, security and accessibility. The key is to ensure that data quickly becomes active for all employees and can be used to drive the business forward.

The future belongs to browserbased capture and mobile apps Web-based and mobile capture solutions enable documents to be digitised anytime, anywhere and across all devices. The software runs centrally on servers so there’s no need to install on individual terminals, meaning documents can be captured via a browser, from within a line of business application or using a smartphone. Expenditure on infrastructure is reduced and as IT support is centralised, businesses benefit from lower operating costs and a faster ROI. The new freedom of wireless scanning Wireless scanners enable seamless connectivity through the office network or over Wi-Fi. Equipped with standard drivers, they can be easily and securely integrated within existing and legacy business applications and used alongside cloud- or web-

based capture applications. This new generation of scanners can be controlled by smartphones and tablets, but also by permanently installed scanning solutions and browser-based capture software, which makes them flexible devices, both today and in the future.

Decentralised capture complements the central input management Historically, centralised document capture was sufficient. However, modern working practices and trends including BYOD combined with customer expectations for 24/7 access and real-time communication, has created a requirement for knowledge workers to tap into decentralised capture solutions. This is exactly why companies should be leveraging new scanning technologies and solutions that efficiently and securely integrate paper documents directly into electronic processes, independent of the application or available hardware.

Bottom line is always at the heart of any business decision, and any capital investment needs to be carefully considered. However, it’s important to look at the long-term picture. We are managing more information than ever, which makes the requirement to create efficient systems to handle it much more pressing. In today’s mobile-first era, paper-based processes are no longer viable, and forward-thinking organisations should be digitally transforming their information management strategies to improve operational efficiency and ensure profitable growth. www.tahawultech.com

INSIGHT

Alan Duncan, research director, Gartner

Your path to CDO success The growing importance of the chief data officer reflects the central role of information in digital business, says Gartner’s research director Alan Duncan.

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he rise of the chief data officer (CDO) demonstrates the increasing need for overt leadership of datadriven digital business, as well as the need to champion the value of data assets. The concept of considering information as an asset is becoming increasingly pervasive. Despite this, the disciplines required to be effective in managing information as an asset and maximising the business value from it are not yet widely practiced.

According to Gartner’s research, the CDO role is still new in the large majority of companies — more than 80 percent assumed the role in the last two years, and 60 percent of current positions were created in 2015.

What does a CDO do?

Whether an aspiring CDO or an executive leader seeking to appoint one, it helps to know what people currently performing this function are responsible for: • Assuming executive responsibility and accountability for enterprise information assets • Working with board members and other C-level executives to establish vision and create a culture that treats data as a crosscorporate asset • Identifying and standardising the use and governance of information 60

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in support of the overall global business strategy • Leading the organisation to produce data insights that help drive strategic and tactical business opportunity, and championing a data-driven, decision-making culture

organisations that are taking data and analytics aspects seriously and preparing for them. It’s important to adopt responsibility for ensuring information-based business transformation, value creation, operational efficiency and improved risk management.

Where do CDOs come from?

CDOs’ common work experiences and prior roles include: • A background in analytics: 63 percent of CDOs globally were in a diverse range of data and analytics roles prior to their current appointment.

• A range of other line-of-business roles such as sales and marketing (16 percent), and finance and operations (10 percent).

• While a degree of technology awareness is required, the CDO is not a technical role. Only 9 percent had a prior position in a traditional IT department.

2. Be business-centric, data-oriented, analytically minded and culturally aware Successful CDOs will be able to influence the culture and behaviour of peers and colleagues, pushing the organisation to become more data-driven, information-centric and analytical. As the role matures and demands increase, successful CDOs will recognise the different cultural characteristics needed to highlight the business value of data.

How to succeed as a CDO There are three main characteristics that will lead to success in the role.

CDOs must: 1. Be the emergent leader for datadriven business While a relatively new role, the increase in the number of appointed CDOs reflects the rising number of

3. Focus on the link between data, analytics, business processes and outcomes By focusing on these linkages, CDOs will be able to create business relevancy and establish themselves as the catalyst for data-driven business value.

There’s a clear opportunity to become the individual within the organisation who identifies, articulates and evangelises the business value of data in support of better business outcomes. www.tahawultech.com

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INSIGHT

Arthur Dell, director, Technology & Services, MEA, Citirix

The digital doctor Arthur Dell, director, Technology and Service, MEA, Citrix, analyses how technology is providing enhancements in patient care within the region, while also enabling medical professionals to maintain a healthy work-life balance outside of the hospital’s four walls.

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t’s widely known in the Middle East that the UAE government has taken a firm stance on ensuring healthcare services in the country are among the best in the world. The nation attracts doctors, industry experts and highly skilled specialists from across the globe looking to share their best practices. A major driving force in this regard is the UAE’s Vision 2021, whereby the local leadership is set to have all public and private hospitals accredited according to clear regional and international benchmarks to ensure excellency. As such, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Arab Health, the region’s largest healthcare exhibition and medical congress, chooses to host its annual event in Dubai.

Technology is a significant talking point at such events. Many agree that increased accessibility of treatment is one of the most tangible ways that technology has changed healthcare.

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individuals safer and more reliable in most scenarios. This can be observed at any hospital in the UAE, where doctors and nurses on the frontline make use of hand-held computers to record critical real-time patient data and then share it instantly within their updated medical history to store for future reference.

A great way to put this into perspective is to picture the following scenario. Imagine that after a long and tiring shift at the hospital, a physician finally has the chance to head home with plans to pick up a meal for their family. Halfway to their destination, they get a phone call from the nursing station requesting that they provide immediate medical direction, as a patient was facing serious difficulties.

Rather than having to drive all the way back to the hospital, wasting precious time their patient may or may not have had, the physician used their mobile device to review the files in their car and provided counsel directly on the go. As a result, the patient was

able to receive proper care at the right time, and the physician made it home to enjoy dinner with their family.

Digital health is transforming the way UAE residents receive care by enabling authorised HCPs secure access to patient data at any time, in any place with, potentially, any device.

And while mobility can help deliver better care beyond the four walls of a hospital by improving access to data and patient information, it’s equally beneficial within hospitals, as it enables patient information to securely appear on a tablet device so a HCP can deliver true bedside care to their patients.

While healthcare will always require a human element, technology will continue to underpin medical talent as it improves with time. It is important that the integration of digital services is carried out strategically, with hospitals and vendors working closely together to reach a shared goal of premier patientcare for all. www.tahawultech.com

INSIGHT

Clint Boulton, CIO.com

Think twice before you hire a chief AI officer Is it time for companies to install a chief artificial intelligence officer to manage machine learning, natural language processing and associated efforts?

A

rtificial intelligence will become so instrumental to corporate revenue growth that businesses should hire a chief artificial intelligence officer to spearhead AI initiatives, says Andrew Ng, who drives global AI strategy at Chinese search giant Baidu. Not so fast, says Neil Jacobstein, chair of 64

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artificial intelligence and robotics at Singularity University, who isn’t a fan of companies centralizing leadership for AI functions.

The two clashed on the topic here last week at the Wall Street Journal’s CIO Network, where Ng and Jacobstein spoke on a panel. Although they disagreed on the organisational

approaches to AI, Ng and Jacobstein both said that the technology is a potentially game-changing way to harness the vast amounts of information corporations collect.

AI encompasses methodologies and practices for teaching computers how to learn, make decisions and solve problems like a human. AI has www.tahawultech.com

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INSIGHT

Clint Boulton, CIO.com

endured many fits and starts for the last few decades. However, recent breakthroughs involving image recognition and natural language processing, as well as trainable algorithms, have spurred advances in anything from autonomous vehicles to chatbots that can process pizza orders and suggest medical diagnoses to doctors.

To centralise or decentralise?

Progress in AI regularly rekindles the furor over its potential to automate and displace jobs. But it also raises the question of whether companies are prepared to tap into AI to gain competitive advantages. Ng said that many are not, and he predicted that in five years, CEOs running S&P 500 index companies will be lamenting the fact that they didn’t formulate an AI strategy sooner.

That is why Ng, who also penned a column on the topic for Harvard Business Review, believes a chief AI officer is essential. Such a leader can help corporations attract and hire the right talent to explore opportunities in machine learning, deep learning and natural language processing. “We’re in that early phase of AI where it’s so complicated and recruiting talent is so difficult that having a centralised AI function will be the best way for many enterprises to bring in the talent,” said Ng. But Jacobstein said that centralising AI is unlikely to be as effective as allowing business teams to conduct their own AI experiments with the support of the CEO. Alternatively, Jacobstein said companies can crowdsource AI talent from organisations such as Experfy, where data scientists can compete for prize money to cultivate optimal solutions to business challenges.

“Taking a distributed, powerful 66

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approach to this is the best practice,” Jacobstein said.

A distributed approach to AI may make the most practical sense, as a scarcity of talent to work with and implement the technology makes it hard for corporations to stock a large pool of AI experts. And you can blame Baidu and its fellow internet companies for amassing a concentrated wealth in this area.

In search of revenue growth, Google, Facebook, Baidu and Amazon.com have loaded up on engineers, mostly university faculty and researchers capable of implementing AI for image recognition, conversational computing and other areas.

Internet companies bleed AI talent dry In November, Google hired the director of Stanford University’s artificial intelligence lab to lead a new AI unit. Facebook plucked Yann LeCun from New York University. Carnegie Mellon University’s Alex Smola moved to Amazon. Ng himself joined Baidu from Stanford. Draining universities of the teachers best qualified to raise the next generation of AI experts will widen an already dire talent gap.

The irony of Ng – speaking from a role at a company that has lured more than 1,300 AI specialists – saying that a chief AI officer is best-positioned to customise AI for real business context wasn’t lost on the CIO audience.

“For an average Fortune 500 company, it is absolutely not a good idea to have a C-suite person [leading an AI unit,” said Khalid Kark, Deloitte’s U.S. CIO program research leader, who attended the event.

Kark said it would be better for business lines to find ways to leverage AI to solve pressing business challenges, rather than building a

Image recognition and natural language processing have spurred advances in anything from autonomous vehicles, to chatbots that can process pizza orders and suggest medical diagnoses to doctors.

separate organization and hoping to stock it with staff. “The real value of AI is going to be solving business problems and the need has to grow organically from there to be able to drive any benefits,” Kark said.

Assuming a company could even hire enough people to staff a dedicated AI unit, such an entity also runs the risk of becoming a siloed organisation that fosters resentment from other units. One manufacturing company Kark worked with created a digital unit comprising 1,200 workers, only to roll it back after it failed. “Every time we have a hard problem we can’t have C-suite executive trying to solve it for us, Kark said. “It creates a silo and an organisation that can be viewed on a pedestal.” www.tahawultech.com

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PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Launches and releases

Brand: Samsung Product: Galaxy S8 and S8+

Brand: Linksys Product: Velop Velop is Linksys’ Whole Home Wi-Fi product.

The device is a tri-band modular Wi-Fi system that can be installed in various mesh configurations.

Velop uses an integrated “system on a chip” from Qualcomm, which incorporates a 716 MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, three WiFi radios (one 2.4 GHz and two 5.0 GHz) and two auto-sensing LAN/WAN Gigabit ports. This is complemented by 4GB of flash memory, 512MB DDR3 memory and a Bluetooth 4.0/ LE radio. The device contains six antennae and high power amplifiers.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Each Velop “node” is a TriBand AC2200 device that serves as a router, range extender, access point, and bridge. The nodes are configured during setup by the accompanying Linksys app, which is available for iOS and Android.

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APRIL 2017

Samsung has finally unveiled its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

The new devices’ design features an infinity display and AMOLED screen that wraps around the device.

Samsung has removed the Home key button for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.

The smartphones are equipped with iris scanning and facial recognition software, and retain a few familiar features from the Galaxy S7, including a 12MP camera, water-resistant body, wireless charging and a headphone jack.

Both the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will be paired with 4GB of RAM. However, China and South Korea are reportedly set to receive 6GB RAM variants. The devices will run on Android 7.0 Nougat, and support dual-SIM slots.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The devices will also be the first Samsung phones to feature the company’s new Bixby AI assistant and the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip.

Samsung has also unveiled a new version of the Gear VR and introduced DeX, a dock that allows the S8 to turn into a desktop computer.

The Galaxy S8’ will start at a price of $720.

Brand: Intel Product: Xeon Processor

E3-1200 v6

Intel’s new Xeon processor E3-1200 v6 product family includes eight new versions that provide key improvements in processor speed and memory capabilities with support for the latest Intel graphics.

The new series is designed for entrylevel servers used by small business customers and powering entry-level workstations.

The Intel Xeon processor E3-1280 v6 supports up to 3.90 GHz base frequency with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 frequency up to 4.20 GHz. Additionally, the Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v6 product family supports enhanced memory speeds, with configurations

of robust Error-Correcting Code (ECC) memory up to 64 GB DDR at 2400 MHz. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The processors include hardware-enhanced security features such as Software Guard Extensions (SGX) to protect sensitive data like encryption keys used for communications over the Internet from unauthorised access or modification. The Authenticate Solution, meanwhile, offers customisable multi-factor authentication to help protect access to sensitive company data. www.tahawultech.com

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COLUMN

Glesni Holland, Deputy Editor, CNME

One-stop shop T

he Middle East is perfectly posed for e-commerce to thrive. Not only does the UAE’s 78 percent smartphone penetration rate rank it as one of the highest in the world, but the region’s everincreasing population and growing pockets of wealth present the ideal platform for online shopping to excel. Advisory firm AT Kearney’s 2016 GCC e-commerce market study said that the region has the potential to become the world’s fastest growing online market.

With this in mind, Amazon could well have bagged themselves a fantastic deal in paying under $700 million – the exact figure hasn’t yet been revealed, but we can safely assume it’s below this mark – for the region’s largest online retailer, Souq.com.

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With such clear potential in the region, however, you begin to wonder why it’s taken until 2017 for e-commerce to start making headway in this region. The region’s mega-malls are largely responsible, and according to Awok.com, Dubai has the highest number of online shoppers in the UAE, at 46 percent.

This figure doesn’t really tell the whole story, however.

The UAE’s overall level of online retail sits at a lowly 2 percent. By comparison, the United Kingdom and South Korea – also small, densely populated countries – conduct 11 and 10.8 percent respectively of their overall retail purchases online.

So why do platforms like Souq and Noon.com believe they’ve got what it takes to conquer this

region’s stubborn shopping habits?

Well, Noon’s promise to stock 20 million products and deliver within three hours isn’t a bad place to start. Yet the site’s delayed launch, coupled with the global publicity surrounding the Amazon-Souq deal may put Noon on the back foot when its arrival comes. The $1 billion firm – which was originally due to stock products from January this year – has been betatesting its site for the past two months and finalising launch plans.

Yet it appears Mohamed Alabbar, co-founder of Noon. com, is not worried. “We see online sales in the region growing from 2 per cent, or $3 billion a year, to 15 per cent – which is $70 billion within a decade,” he said. “There is clearly enough room for everyone.” www.tahawultech.com

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